Warmth in a Sea of Cold
by KaL-El of Krypt0n
Summary: She longed forsomeone who would never even look ather. She never acknowledged the one person who tried his best to make her happy.... NARUSAKU..R&R PLEASE
1. Prologue

She couldn't see a thing. The wind whipped in her face while the dying fire gave off bursts of heat. Snow started to fall and soon she was caught in the onslaught of the blizzard. She had lost her way and she felt so alone. She called out the name of the one she thought she loved. "SASUKE! SASUKE! HELP ME…" She whimpered. Would he leave her here to die? Would he ignore her, as she always had?

Sakura's steps began to become more erratic. As her energy dwindled she started having trouble breathing. "Sasuke…" she rasped out one last time. As she started to fall, she closed her eyes, waiting for the soft impact of the freezing ground. But the pain never came. She felt two warm arms surround her, imbuing her with their heat. "Sasuke…?" Yet instead of the obsidian pupils she expected, brilliant sapphire orbs stared back at her. "Sakura-chan? Are you okay?" She was too tired to fight. It felt so good to just be in his arms. So warm, so kind, so…right. Naruto drew her close to his chest, trying to give her as much of his heat as he could. Now wasn't the time to think of himself. He could always tell her what happened later…

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Iono, I was inspired all of a sudden. Just decided to write this. Should I continue it? It could be a oneshot or it could continue on… reviews?

edit

All right, I decided to continue it. My first fanfic and I REALLY shouldn't be using my free time like this, but wutever.. second chapter to come soon..


	2. Author's note

Author's Note: Okay, so this fanfic is mainly directed for my friends at school, and since not many know about Naruto I'll give short descriptions of what's happening now and the timeline. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE FAMILIAR WITH NARUTO, just read the first two paragraphs.

The time is set up after the chuunin exams. Except right after the fight with Sasuke at the Valley of the End, Kyuubi started to actively talk with Naruto in his head. Kyuubi has taught Naruto a technique that allows him to access the chakra characteristics of the Kyuubi. The power of the Nine-tails includes chakra regeneration, thus it is impossible for (in theory) Kyuubi to ever suffer for chakra depletion for very long. Kyuubi also has also granted Naruto his own eyes, the Iris of the Demon Lord. This allows Naruto perfect control over his senses. He can fine tune his hearing, eyesight, taste, smell, and touch to a very specific degree.

Sasuke has come back. With the help of Tsunade, Jiraiya, and some other specialists, his cursed seal has been removed, though Sasuke is still haunted by some after effects of the seal, such as very vivid nightmares and short bursts of hallucinations. He is now being trained by Kakashi and is learning to overcome his obsession with revenge. Sakura is training with Tsunade and Jiraiya will take Naruto on a one-year training trip soon.

Okay, for those who are first being introduced or don't know much about Naruto:

Kyuubi is the nine-tailed, strongest of the nine legendary demons that used to wreak havoc on the earth. The strongest ninja in the village of Konoha, the fourth Hokage, used a self-sacrificing technique to seal the Kyuubi inside a newborn baby, Naruto (who's also his son in my fic). Although Naruto is his own person the villagers refuse to believe that and shun him. He's grown up alone until he met his team Sakura, his love interest, Sasuke, his rival and friend, and Kakashi, his sensei.

I think that should about cover it.

The first chapter was near the end of the fic. From here on it'll be a TWO YEARS AGO.

Hopefully I'll be able to update soon.

Should I have Naruto "gain" the "superspeed" of the Yondaime as a bloodline? R&R, please!


	3. Chapter 1

TWO YEARS AGO

A/n: everyone is about 13/14 ish years old.

"I'll make Sakura-chan notice me for _sure_," Naruto thought. He saw the beautiful cherry blossom sitting pensively under a tree. Naruto appeared with a poof of smoke and yelled in his usual cheery voice, "HI SAKURA-CHAN!" As soon as he finished talking, he immediately regretted it. "NA-RU-TO!" With mad fury burning in her eyes, Sakura punched him in the face with all her might. After the pain subsided, Naruto thought to himself, "Why is it that I always make her mad? I was just trying to say hello…"

Soon afterward, Sasuke trudged into the clearing. Sakura's previously crummy mood instantly dissipated as she saw her dream guy. "Ohayo, Sasuke-kun," Sakura blushed. She received a short grunt in reply. "Sasuke-kun, would you like to—"

"No."

"But you don't even know what I was going to—"

"No, no, and no. I came here to train, not to make friends with _you_."

Sakura froze. "not…friends with _you_." She couldn't believe the coldness of his voice. Just thinking about it gave her chills. Naruto saw the drastic change in her mood and yelled, "SASUKE NO BAKA! Apologize **RIGHT NOW!**"

"hmph.."

"grr… Sakura-chan, I'd like to have—"

"Naruto! Stop yelling at Sasuke-kun! Why do you always have to bother people? Why can't you just leave us alone? Why are you always so annoying and mean?"

Naruto didn't know how to respond. His heart broke yet again, for what seemed like the millionth time in his life. He quickly covered his pain with a toothy grin while rubbing the back of his head.

"Heh, sorry Sakura-chan. glares at Sasuke baka…" Naruto muttered the last part.

Suddenly, with a poof the ever-late Kakashi showed up with his Icha Icha Paradise book. "Sorry I'm late. I got lost on the path of li—"

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto and Sakura yelled together. Naruto inwardly smiled, for this was one of the few times that Sakura's anger wasn't directed at him and they were on the same side.

"heh.. well, I guess today we'll work on chakra training. Sasuke, you're going to work on your taijutsu with me."

With some hand seals, four large blocks with a kanji symbol on them appeared in front of Kakashi. "Naruto and Sakura, you'll be practicing by attaching them to the outsides of your legs using your chakra. Then I want you to walk around with them until I tell you you can take a break. Every time you get off the blocks you'll receive a slight shock. Have fun!"

After a few hours of this grueling work, Naruto was finally fed up. "KAKASHI-SENSEI! Why do you always teach Sasuke-baka new stuff while I have to do boring stuff!"

"sigh Naruto, I'm training all three of you where you need to be. Your chakra control is worse than an academy student, so you need to improve that. Since Sasuke has pretty good control I'm training him in taijutsu because I have a plan. And Sakura has especially good chakra control, so I want to nurture her uncanny ability."

"BUT I WANNA LEARN SOMETHING ELSE!"

"Naruto. You want to become hokage, right? And a hokage is very strong, right? You can never become truly strong if your chakra runs out quickly. Even though you have amazing stamina, you can be at least 20 times better if your chakra control was better. You can be very strong. Understand? So will you focus on your work?" Kakashi's patience was wearing thin. He tried to appeal to Naruto's desires as a last resort, hoping it would make the young blond stop bothering him.

"NANI! 20 TIMES! YOSH! I'll be the greatest hokage ever! KAKE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

Suddenly the small clearing was filled with 25 Narutos. They all started to train and tried to knock each other off of the blocks.

"Gotta hand it to that kid. He's got some weird style. Not very bright, but effective nonetheless." Kakashi thought.

near evening

"Naruto, we're gonna go! You should go home too"

"No! I'll never give up till I have the best chakra control ever!"

"ugh! Naruto, why do you have to be so stupid! Jeez, don't you know when to stop?"

At Sakura's last comment, Naruto paused. He just wanted to be stronger so he could show his Sakura-chan that he wasn't worse than Sasuke. Why was it that he always failed to meet her expectations? But he mustn't let her get him down now.

Naruto turned with a toothy grin and said, "Don't worry, Sakura-chan! I always feel better in the morning!"

And with that, he turned back around and viewed the 2 remaining clones. Naruto charged at them and a big dustcloud was thrown up around the Narutos. He continued to train well through the night.

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Naruto woke up in a tired heap in the clearing in the early afternoon.

"Hmm? Weren't we supposed to meet her today? I wonder where Sakura-chan is?"

Naruto went back into Konoha and started to look for Sakura or any sign of Team 7. He did his best to ignore the spiteful glares he received from the villagers. He almost started to believe that he deserved this, but he knew in his heart that he didn't. He did his best to shrug it off and pretend it didn't happen or that it didn't matter to him.

Naruto soon passed the flower shop that Ino worked in. Naruto went in and asked Ino if she knew where Sakura was.

"Forehead girl? How should I know? Oh wait, I think I heard someone say she went on a three-day mission with someone… I don't remember. shrug sorry. Wanna buy some flowers?"

Naruto didn't know what to do. Without Sakura-chan near, he didn't really have anyone to socialize with. Sasuke was always a bust, and all the other teams seemed to be busy. "It's gonna be one looooooong weekend…" Naruto thought as he walked towards Ichiraku's Ramen Bar.

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How was it? Loved it? Hated it? R&R! Criticism and pointers are well taken, flames are not appreciated

Does it feel too randomish? I could mod it and make the story go faster if it seems too slow-moving. Seeeeeya


	4. Chapter 2

**Thoughts**

**_Kyuubi talking_**

Regular

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A few weeks have passed since last chapter

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Naruto decided to do some more training, so he was walking towards the usual clearing where Team 7 usually trained. Suddenly, two cloaked figures materialized in front of them.

Naruto could feel the killer intent exuding from the two figures in front of him. He got into a stance and asked, "WHAT DO YOU WANT!" **hmm, that shorter one looks like Sasuke. He has long hair, though. Why do they have Konoha forehead protectors with slashes through them?**

Yes, these two men were part of the Akatsuki. Itachi and Kisame stood still, eyeing Naruto.

Naruto got tired of waiting and made the familiar hand seal for his favorite jutsu. His chakra flared as he yelled, "TAJUU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" Suddenly, the area was filled with Naruto's shadow clones.

**Hmm, for him to learn this technique is not bad. His chakra control is horrible, though.** Itachi didn't even flinch. Kisame looked ready to cut a wide swath through the few hundred Narutos.

"ATTACK!" Naruto yelled as 30 of them charged at the pair. Kisame disappeared while Itachi stayed put.

Naruto thought he saw Itachi's hands twitch, but thought nothing of it. Suddenly, the nearby pond transformed into a large water dragon and destroyed all the shadow clones in a single swipe.

Kisame suddenly appeared out of the water dragon and gripped his Samehada and became a blur as he weaved in and out between the clones. There was a series of –poofs- as Kisame rushed by.

In a matter of minutes, all the clones were gone and the real Naruto was left breathing raggedly.

"You'll be coming with us, Naruto-kun." Itachi stated flatly. "I don't want to be forced to kill you now, would I?"

"I'll—never—go…-wheeze- with YOU!" Naruto tried to charge at Itachi again, but was tripped by something. "wha—"

Naruto looked to the culprit and there stood Jiraiya the Toad Hermit of the Legendary Three Sannin.

"Eh! ERO-SENNIN!"

A vein popped on Jiraiya's forehead as he said through gritted teeth, "I told you not to call me THAT! Tch.. ungrateful little brat.."

"It seems we have overstayed our time in Konoha. Come, Kisame. Until we meet again, Naruto-kun." And with that, Itachi and Kisame disappeared into the ground."

"What are you doing here, ero-sennin?"

"AHH I told you stop CALLING ME THAT! IS THAT THE THANKS I GET FOR SAVING YOUR SORRY ASS FROM THEM!"

Naruto squinted at the old pervert. "I could've handled them. They weren't so tough."

**He's just like the Fourth. Arashi, you'd be surprised how much he reminds me of you.** "Whatever. I'll meet you at the gate in thirty minutes."

"Eh? Are we going somewhere?"

"Yes, we are going to go somewhere."

"well, do I have to go?"

"YES YOU HAVE TO GO"

"Well, I don't wanna go! You're too perverted for my taste." Naruto said while crossing his arms and squinting.

"Okay, fine. I guess I won't train you. I WAS gonna teach you a technique only I and the Fourth Hokage knew, but I guess you don't wanna hang out with an old pervert, right? "

At the words "train" and "Hokage," Naruto's eyes lit up with fire and he scrambled to his feet. "YOSH! I'LL BE THERE! YOU BETTER NOT LEAVE WITHOUT ME ERO-SENNIN!"

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME TH—"

Before Jiraiya could finish, Naruto was already out of sight. –chuckle-** God knows how great he'll be if he uses that speed all the time hehe.**

In thirty minutes Naruto was ready with Jiraiya and they soon set off into the distance.

A/N: I kindda changed the timeline. Tsunade's already Hokage but Naruto hasn't learned the Rasengan yet. I did it so I can have Naruto talk to Kyuubi about the Iris and the chakra tails.

"So where are we going, Ero-sennin?"

"Stop asking me. You'll see when we get there."

"AWW I WANNA KNOW WHERE WE'RE GOING!"

"JEEZ! IF YOU ASK ME ONE MORE TIME I'M GONNA DISAPPEAR AND YOU'LL NEVER SEE ME AGAIN! AND FORGET ABOUT TRAINING!"

"grr. You suck ero-sennin. Well, at least he's not 'info-gathering' as usual."

As Naruto muttered those words, the laughter of women could be heard. Jiraiya's ears immediately perked up and he dashed off into the woods toward the sound.

"I spoke too soon." Naruto sweat-dropped. **Man, I'll have to use the Harem no Jutsu again. Jeez, having a pervert for a sensei sucks**.

Naruto walked up to Jiraiya using binoculars, trying to get a good look at the bathing women. Naruto smiled maniacally and screamed at the top of his lungs, "HEY ERO-SENNIN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS TREE WITH BINOCULARS!"

The Naruto clone poofed out of existence and Jiraiya was standing dumbfounded and soon was running for his life. Naruto slowly walked after the shrinking dustcloud with his hands behind his back.

**Life is goooood.**

--------------ABOUT A WEEK LATER-----------------

"Okay, just like last time, your chakra control still stinks. But it's okay, since you have so much stamina I'm going to have you focus on your speed. You know how to do the Rasengan now, so I'm going ot have you work on your speed. I want your speed to rival that of that one shinobi who was wearing that hideous-looking green training suit."

"You mean Fuzzy eyebrows?"

"Yes, that guy. I'll give you two weeks to get that fast. If you can do it, then I'll teach you how to control your Kyuubi chakra better…and I'll buy you as much Ramen as you want. Deal?"

"RAMEN! I love ramen. I can't wait…NANI! HOW AM I GONNA GET THAT FAST SO QUICKLY!"

Jiraiya suddenly broke into a large fiendish grin.

**Payback time, little punk.**

Jiraiya did 7 seals and touched Naruto's forehead.

Nothing seemed to happen, but suddenly Naruto's clothing started to shimmer. When the brilliant light faded, there were small rectangular slips all over his clothing. Naruto found himself being pushed into the ground.

"ehh.. ERO-SENNIN what is this! I can hardly breathe!"

"haha that's payback for getting me caught when I was trying to gather information. I only put a little bit of weight on you. Each of those slips is strategically put over your body to maximize its use. You just need to take the strip off and the weight will be gone."

"JEEZ, how much does each slip weigh?"

"100 pounds."

"NANI! BUT THERE'S LIKE, SO MANY OF THEM!"

"There's 64 of them, each over your tenketsu points. It's designed to try to make sure that you don't use your chakra to compensate. It also protects you from attacks that target your tenketsu points, like the Hyuuga clan's Hakke taijutsu attack."

"AHH! I CAN'T EVEN GET UP! ERO-SENNIN, LOWER THE WEIGHTS, PLEASE!" Naruto frantically tried to peel one from his arm, but he found that he could hardly lift his arm up.

Jiraiya was shaking with mirth as tears threatened to come out of his eyes. "HAHAHAHA HAVE FUN, YOUNG ONE! I am off to gather some information." **Those weights should also cause Naruto to try and use his chakra. It'll suck up chakra that's being used, so it should exhaust his regular reserves rather quickly. Hopefully Naruto will be able to call on the Kyuubi's chakra when that happens.**

"Oi, Naruto, I'll give you some advice. Try meditating when you get tired instead of sleeping. Or just meditate now, since you're not MAN enough nor are you STRONG enough to get up. Only someone who will become a Hokage can get up with those weights on."

"AIIIEE! I'M NOT A KID! AND I _WILL_ BE HOKAGE! YAHHHHHH!" Naruto gave a battle cry as he tried to get up. Naruto's chakra flared momentarily and it seemed that he was getting up. As he sat up, however, his chakra flickered and began to shrink. In a matter of seconds his blue aura was gone and with a look of surprise, Naruto flopped back on the ground.

"whaa! Where did my chakra go!"

"Haha did I forget to tell you? Those weights suck up chakra when you try to use it. Good luck!"

And with that, Jiraiya was gone in a flicker.

"ARGH!"

For several hours afterwards, Naruto tried in vain to get up. He tried jumping all at once, he tried relaxing al his muscles, but nothing seemed to work. No matter what he did he couldn't seem to get up. The weights seemed to be burrowing into his skin. Soon, with exhaustion making Naruto almost pass out, he decided he could try this meditation thing.

**I think I heard from Sakura-chan that you have to clear your mind of thoughts. Wait, does that count as a thought? And that was a thought. And this was a thought too. CRAP I keep thinking! AHHHHHHH! THIS IS HARD!**

After several hours Naruto soon fell into a half-sleeping and half-meditative state.

Naruto was in that dark corridor again.

**HEY FOX! HELP ME OUT! GIMME YOUR CHAKRA SO I CAN GET UP!**

**_Stupid kit, what are you doing here? And why are you so weak? -sigh- I guess I'll have to help you again. You should thank your fath—Fourth Hokage for sealing me inside a weakling like you. You will be a god among men with my power._**

Naruto's eyes flung open and his sapphire orbs flickered into the red eyes with the jet black slits of the Kyuubi. Red chakra laked out of Naruto's body and the weights couldn't suck up the chakra fast enough. Naruto slowly got up and he finally stood up! It felt great to finally stand up! Naruto tried to flare his chakra and it grew, but soon diminished back to its original red glow.

**Hey furball, why can't I flare my chakra?**

_**WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME! Don't you EVER call me that again. And why should I let you control my chakra? I do not think you are worthy yet. You ungrateful brat, be happy that I'm helping you out.**_

**Eeesh, I bet you're just scared cuz you're too weak. You can't give me anymore chakra cuz that's all you have, huh?** Naruto tried to egg on the Kyuubi into giving him more power.

_**You dare undermine my power? I am the Lord of the Demons, the most powerful being to ever walk the face of this puny earth! How dare you! Yet I am also the wiliest and most intelligent of all creatures. Do you think that your puny persuasion techniques will get me to bend to your will? Think again, stupid brat.**_

**Fine, let's just see how strong you are. I'm going to start exercising. I bet you're gonna run out of chakra and I'm gonna flop back on the ground. Hmph. I know you know that if I pass out, you can't do anything about it. And if I die you die, too. So I'm going to pass out unless I have more chakraaa…**

Naruto started to take a few hesitant steps. It was so very difficult to move. He could feel every muscle fiber being stretched and torn to its limit. **Sheehs, who wouldda thought Ero-sennin would actually give me some tough training?** Naruto got up to a heavy walk, and soon he could increase his walking speed to normal. After an hour or so he could start jogging at a slow pace. **Tired yet, fox? Hehe, I bet he's getting tired. Oh wait, he can't hear me. Damn.**

Naruto got bored of jogging, so he went back to his original position, here there was a 2-foot deep crater in the shape of his body. **Jeez, this is amazing. I bet Fuzzy eyebrows would love to have weights like these.**

Naruto laid on his stomach and begin doing pushups. After about 2 Naruto got so tired he fell on the floor. He strained back up again and continued doing cycles of two pushups. **Okay fox, so you're still gonna only give me a bare minimum? Fine, I'll tire myself out into a coma!** Naruto yelled and with all his might did pushups nonstop. His whole body was aching, and his brain was screaming at him to stop and to rest. Naruto shut out the pain and continued doing pushups. Around the hundredth pushup, Naruto suddenly ran out of energy and just passed out on the ground. The red glow around his body flickered out.

Naruto was lying down with his eyes closed in front of the Kyuubi's cage. Red chakra leaked out and raised him to a standing position. **_You baka! You passed out! What the hell do you think you're doing! You could kill yourself, which means you'd kill me!_**

Naruto slowly opened his eyes and rubbed them sleepily. –yawn- "Well, it's your own stupid fault. I told you to help me."

_**Grr I'll never help you with that attitude. You better start to respect me, or I'll never help you again. You can just rot right there where you're lying right now. I'll just heal you so you won't die for a long time. I'm stuck in here anyway, if your'e gonna be such a disrespectful little brat then I'll enjoy watching you suffer!**_

**EEE! Fine, furball. You're so great. Now will you give me chakra when I ask? **

_**No. But I will tell you a few things about me that concerns you. When you become powerful enough, I'll allow you to use more of my power. I'll be able to talk to you, too. Since you're finding it easier and easier to get to my cage, soon it'll just be like talking to someone in your head. That is why your so-called "teacher" told you to meditate. If you continue meditating everyday you'll soon be able to talk to me easily.**_

**_Another thing is about my chakra. My ninth tail gave me a special ability. It regenerates my chakra almost instantly, thus I have nearly limitless chakra. My eighth tail controls healing. But without proper control my chakra will harm your body continuously while you use it. When you are able to release all nine tails even for a second without losing control, you'll be able to have chakra regeneration and instantaneous healing as well. But let me remind you this will take a very long time to master. Don't expect to be able to do this soon. You have to get both mentally and physically stronger to control the power and the bloodlust._**

"When will I be able to do it?"

_**The more you use my chakra the better your body will grow accustomed to it and the better you'll get at controlling it. I'll allow it to leak out but not past the first tail. When you see a red tail materialize and become semi-solid-looking, that's your chakra limit. At the rate you're going it'll take a minimum of 3 and a half years.**_

"NANI!"

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Naruto slowly opened his eyes the next morning. He tried to rub his eyes but couldn't move his arms. He was surprised and he tried to raise his head to see what was going on but he couldn't move his head either. Then he remembered the weights that were all over his body. **Grr ero-sennin I'll kill you when I see you.**

Naruto's eyes darted around his surroundings and he found that he was surrounded by dirt. He looked up and saw that about 5 feet up was light. **Oh my god, I sunk 5 feet into the ground just in my sleep? Ahhh how am I gonna get back up there!**

Naruto again tried to raise his arms and felt the sharp pains of sore muscles. He used his tongue to bite some of his clothing so he could bite through the pain. He strained his muscles again, and this time he saw his limbs quiver ever so slightly upward. **Yes! I can twitch now!** Naruto kept at it for several hours.

It was around midday when Jiraiya showed up with an armful of ramens. "Hey, Naruto, how's that training going? Pretty tough, eh?"

Naruto shot darts at Jiraiya with his eyes. "NO! This training is so easy! I decided to lie down here because it was so boring and easy!"

Jiraiya waved the bowls of instant ramen around and teased, "Look what I've got."

"AHH! RAMEN!"

Naruto tried to reach for it and successfully moved his arms one inch from resting position. **Wow, the kid's made some progress. The Yondaime took a full week to move his arms that much. Maybe he's got some potential after all.**

"argh! When I get out of here, I'm going to kill you ero-sennin! Rargh! I want RAMEN!"

Suddenly Naruto's eyes turned crimson and his pupils became slits. Red chakra swirled around his body and wisps of it ate away at the dirt around him. Naruto slowly stood up, bent his legs, and rocketed upward—one foot.

"ARGH!"

Red chakra surged around Naruto and Naruto tried again. One foot. One and a half feet. Two feet. Three. Four. With a final yell, Naruto outstretched his arms for an extra boost and rocketed out of the hole and right in front of Jiraiya. Kyuubi reduced the flow of chakra so Naruto would have to rely on his own physical strength more. Naruto's eyes reverted back to normal but he still look mad as hell.

As he slowly made his way towards a smirking Jiraiya, Naruto's look of anger changed into one of surprise, seeing as how he found he could no longer take any more steps forward.

"Hmm, so I see YOU haven't actually gotten any better, it was just Kyuubi helping you out, eh?"

"That's not true! I meditated like you told me and I talked to that furball for a loooong time! He said he'd help me out!"

Jiraiya's eyes widened in surprise but he quickly recovered and decided to egg on Naruto while also finding out what they spoke about.. "Suuuure you did kid. So tell me, what'd Kyuubi say?"

"He said that he's gonna let me use up to one tail's power of chakra and that my body will be constantly damaged if I use more unless I get stronger both mentally and physically. He said if I can get release the eighth tail I get instant healing even at regular times and I get instant chakra regeneration if I get the ninth tail."

Jiraiya was astounded by the news. **It was a good thing I cleared this training with Tsunade. If he'd started any later Akatsuki would capture him far too easily. Hopefully he can be powerful enough to handle himself in a year or two.**

"It looks like you actually did improve, Naruto. If you were able to quiet your loud mouth enough to meditate, maybe you're not such a bad ninja after all."

Naruto inwardly blushed at his new sensei's praise.

"meh. I'm still gonna kill you when I can, Ero-sennin. I'll take these weights off and beat you up!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. You can't take them off unless you figure out how to unseal them. They fuse with your body, so unless you're gonna cut your skin off, you'll need some hand seals to unseal them. But only the person who originally did the seals can show you. Cuz there's the base hand seals for the actual weights, then the person adds 2 or more extra hand seals to make it unique, thus only the person who put the weights on originally can take them off unless they tell you. So only I can tell you how to take them off. Hahaha that's what you get for interrupting my information gathering " Jiraiya was like a little kid, bouncing up and down all around Naruto and pointing and laughing.

Then Naruto remembered something. "Hey Jiraiya-sensei."

Jiraiya froze in his place. Did the loudmouth ninja just call him by a respectful term? Jiraiya sensed that Naruto was being serious for once. "Yeah, kid?"

"I just remembered that I didn't get to say goodbye to any of my friends. Is there any way that I could send a letter to someone back in Konoha?"

**Ah, it's that Haruno girl. I'm glad you have someone that motivates you to do better, Naruto. I'm glad that you don't hate everyone in Konoha.** "Yeah. You can use a messenger frog. Do you remember how to summon frogs?"

"Oh yeah! I totally forgot about that!" –pause- "uhh, there's just one problem. I can't move my arms very much, remember?"

"uhh.. fine. I'll undo the weights JUST FOR FIVE MINUTES SO YOU CAN WRITE YOUR LETTER. Then I'm putting them back on. Got it!"

"okay! Thanks, Jiraiya sensei!"

"Kai!" Jiraiya did the hand seals too fast for Naruto's eyes to even register the movement.

Naruto looked down at his body, then looked up slowly at Jiraiya. With a smile slowly creeping on his face, Naruto made the seal for…

"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

-sigh- "I knew you'd try something like this." Jiraiya stuck out two fingers and suddenly the kage bunshins disappeared and Naruto was on his knees struggling to stand back up.

"Naruto, what did I JUST say? Jeez, you never listen."

"damn! I hoped I could surprise you and beat you up. Fine, I promise I won't do it this time. And you know I keep my promises. It's my way of the ninja."

"allright. Kai!"

Naruto set about writing his letter.

_Dear Sakura-chan….._

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I felt it was a good place to stop. I think there'll be NaruSaku later. This fic is loosely based on my real life (at least the fluff stuff), so yeah, for now it'll be mainly Naruto maturing a little and his mastery of those weights. I felt that since he has such great chakra, I mean why not focus on his speed and taijutsu, make 10 kage bunshins, make 4 ransengans, then have the 4 circle the enemy while the other 6 scatter and wait for the enemy to make a replacement, identify the real location of the enemy, and attack? I mean, can you imagine the damage that could be done if Naruto could move at Rock Lee's speed? Or maybe Gai's? Maybe faster? Yeah, that's how he should have spent those 3 years in the manga… anyways, okay, that's all for now.

R&R PLEASE! Wheeeee

R&R gooooooooood

Flames pooooooooooop


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